Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. But what if it's a friend of the enemy?
The Washington Redskins, Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants all reportedly tried to hire former Oregon Ducks defensive coordinator after the Philadelphia Eagles named Chip Kelly their head coach in 2013. Great minds think alike, no?
"I have been asked by everybody in the NFC East," Nick Aliotti, now retired, told The Oregonian. "The Giants asked me to come back when Chip got the first job. I didn't feel right doing that. Some teams have called when they're getting ready to play the Eagles and they call and have certain questions on the thing. Unless I know the guy and he's a good friend, I don't get involved with that."
"Sometimes it's about scheme, sometimes it's about how you handle what's going on with a situation," Aliotti said. "I have quite a few good friends... mostly it's X's and O's or how you handle a situation or a player."
Aliotti, 60, has shown a commendable amount of loyalty to Kelly by not parlaying his knowledge of the offense into an NFL salary. The whole situation also reveals just how scared other teams around the league are of Kelly's offensive system.
Despite the limitations of both starters Nick Foles and Mark Sanchez, the Eagles currently rank fourth in the NFL in total offense (411.8 yards per game) and third in points per game (31.1). The team is averaging nearly six yards per play.
My guess is that teams will continue to reach out to Aliotti as long as the Eagles are putting up numbers like that.
